Dow soars over 400 points as Wall Street cheers Fed rate cuts are on the way

Wall Street’s stock indexes jumped on Friday, with the benchmark S&P 500 index nearing a record high, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said “the time has come” to reduce interest rates.

At a highly anticipated annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Powell endorsed imminent policy easing citing risks in the job market and inflation coming within reach of the Fed’s 2% target.

In recent trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 460 points, or 1.1%, to 41,173. The S&P 500 gained 1%, and the Nasdaq climbed 1.3%.